One mild inaccuracy is the original Wendigo inhabitants of the Island being referred to as "Wendigo GeeBees." The way the story goes now, the original Wendigoes were pure Wendigoes who died with the first Island; when reborn on the second Island, they came back in much lesser form as the GeeBees and Windwalkers. Hence Gitchi Manitou didn't really intervene to stop the Wendigoes, unless you count them coming back in lesser form as intervention on his part. (Which it very well could have been.) I notice that I in fact state this in this history, so I guess the only thing that's really changed is how the original Wendigoes died.
This history cuts off earlier than the 2002 one, at Ocryx and Ocryana being imprisoned; the previous history goes up to the point when Francois discovers the Island. Feel free to compare the two.
This article will contain mild spoilers for the future serial, Escape From Manitou Island. Please read at your own discretion.
The original Manitou Island was created by the Great Spirit, Gitchi Manitou, as one of the first land masses upon the surface of a great water. Called the Turtle Island, it became the home of his subsequent creations, which included the manitous, Wendigo GeeBees, and various lesser beings such as the Pukwudjininees, nebanaubae, and Maemaegawaese. This was a primal Manitou Island, much the same in appearance as the current one, but devoid of human life and somewhat wilder as a result. The Island was allowed mainly to develop on its own, though Gitchi Manitou did intervene at least once, to stop the predations of the Wendigo GeeBees, gigantic cannibalistic beings who were set on annihilating all other life upon the Island to sate their own appetites; Gitchi Manitou reduced the Wendigoes to dust until such a time as he should decide what best to do with them, and the Island went on much as it had before.
When Gitchi Manitou drew away from the Island, Geezhigo-Quae, the Sky Mother, was left to keep watch over it, and adopted the Island much as her own. She grew close to the Island, more intimately connected to it than Gitchi Manitou had been, and helped in its further development as the primal dwelling place. She became recognized as the mother of the Island, and its primary protector and guardian, her own hand in its welfare making her almost as much its creator as Gitchi Manitou was.
A powerful manitou known as Megissogwun, the Pearl Feather, approached Geezhigo-Quae with the intent of making her his wife; when she refused him, he enlisted the aid of the Mishupishus, or the Underwater Manitous (AKA the Horned Serpents, Great Lynxes, or Underwater Lynxes--serpentine water manitous with horns and catlike features), to destroy Manitou Island in a great flood. The attempt was successful, and the Island quickly sank beneath the waves; Geezhigo-Quae, however, in turn enlisted the aid of the Four Winds to defeat Megissogwun so she could attempt to restore the Island to its former glory. The South Wind (Shawondassee), East Wind (Wabun), and North Wind (Kabebonikka) fought against Megissogwun but failed to defeat him; finally the West Wind, Kabeyun, engaged in combat with the Pearl Feather and managed to subdue him, the Mishupishus scattering in the process. Geezhigo-Quae obtained a handful of soil from the drowned Manitou Island and used it to re-create it upon the back of a mystical turtle, the bit of soil enlarging and growing into the second Manitou Island, that of the current stories. Gitchi Manitou resurrected the manitous and other beings of the Island, and Geezhigo-Quae gave birth to the first of the Michinimakinong, or Turtle Spirits, who came to be the first proper inhabitants of the Island. The Wendigo GeeBees were resurrected as the much weaker and smaller GeeBees, most of their former power and menace having been taken away by the Great Spirit, and at last the Island resided in more of a balanced state.
This balance was temporarily threatened with the creation of the manitous Ocryx and Ocryana by Gitchi Manitou, before the Island was heavily populated by the Michinimakinong. When the two manitous quarreled with each other and changed each other's form into that of demons, Gitchi Manitou placed them both into a deep sleep in separate parts of the Island, Ocryx being trapped beneath a dry lakebed, Ocryana within a cave in the ground. Over the years many taboos came to be associated with these two places, until the existence of the demons was treated as a legend and sometimes even doubted.
Late Woodland (circa 14-1500 AD) natives from the mainland began filtering to the Island by accident, believing themselves to be setting foot on Michilimackinac (Mackinac Island) and only discovering the difference after they had seen what beings actually lived there; for Manitou Island's location and existence had long been protected from humans by means of a mystical fog which would occasionally enshroud the Straits and hide it from view. The Island occupied the same location as Mackinac Island, but would appear only when the fog was at its heaviest. The natives who did accidentally make their way to Manitou Island for the most part remained, as attempts to return to the mainland were found to be more often unsuccessful than successful. Over time more natives made their way there, until several small settlements were begun and the natives decided to stay in their accidental home rather than risk the dangers of returning to a mainland that might not be of their own time. On the mainland, the natives evolved into the Ojibwa and Ottawa cultures of the contact era, but those upon the Island took on their own identity which was much similar to yet distinct from that of the mainlanders. They also escaped contact with the Europeans, and so remained almost in a "frozen" state, unchanged for many years, while culture on the mainland rapidly changed with the times.
The Michinimakinong, original stewards of the Island, at first maintained their distance as they gauged the temperament of the newcomers; they then began to carefully present themselves, attempting to open up friendly communications and relations with the former mainlanders. These overtures of friendship, however, were for the most part greeted with hostility, as the newcomers, still uncertain and even afraid of their strange surroundings, rebuffed the Michinimakinong and even countered with violence in an attempt to keep themselves save [sic]. Rather than attack in return, Geezhigo-Quae created the Fairy Arch, and ordered the Michinimakinong to retreat, leaving the Island behind, as an increasing number of humans was making it impossible for the two races to continue to live side by side in uneasy peace. Relations between humans and Michinimakinong were forbidden, and without a second word the Turtle Spirits retreated, abandoning the Island to the humans, who soon after made it their own permanent home, building villages and raising families and a new generation of Islanders. Eventually, living alongside the manitous and GeeBees was seen to be perfectly normal, and the Island reached the state it was in just before European contact.
By accident, the two demons, Ocryx and Ocryana, were released from their prisons and set loose upon the Island; they could not be killed, as Gitchi Manitou had entwined their lives with that of the Island, and so they were allowed to live freely. The more destructive of the two, Ocryana, was held in check by the more powerful of the demons, Ocryx, who rather than continue his vendetta, decided to make his home within Devil's Lake and keep his distance from humankind. Aside from accepting offerings and fulfilling bargains, and occasionally visiting with females as potential mates, the demon managed to maintain the same sort of uneasy peace that the Michimimakinong had once attempted, and Ocryana was kept in check.
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